Social Networks and Health Governance.

This paper addresses the health challenges of contemporary societies, where stakeholders with diverse, and sometimes antagonistic interests, are faced with the establishment of a public agenda for the health care of the population. In this field, the modern welfare state plays an important role, not only as an implementing agent of the public agenda but also as a guarantor in the provision of services. In this essay, we will explore the concept of governance, which seeks to analyze the new governance practices in late modernity, incorporating the complicated relationship among stakeholders, in a scheme where ingredients such as popular participation and social control of public affairs are put to the fore.